A Stitch In Time Saves Five
by AbRaCaDaBrA
Summary: The story of MWPP's failed plan and the night James saved Severus's life. Please read and review!
1. Author's Note

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A BRIEF AND RELATIVELY PAINLESS AUTHOR'S NOTE

This story – this story right here! – was my first Harry Potter fan fiction EVER. It existed in several formats on my computer, and the earliest I can find is June 19, 2000, but I'm sure it was written even earlier than that. Because it's so old, it's a rather simple story, with a few cute grammar/spelling errors I decided to leave in just for old times' sake. I wrote it in seventh grade and now I'm a high school sophomore!

Well, I hope you like _A Stitch in Time Saves Five_, and even if you don't, please review it. Thank you!

__

AbRaCaDaBrA


	2. Breakfast Before

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ONE : BREAKFAST BEFORE 

James Potter looked at the bowl of oatmeal before him, deep in thought. His friend beside him, Sirius Black, seemed to be in the same thoughtful mood. Remus Lupin looked totally drained and sleepless to the left of James. He always looked that way when the moon was full.

"What'll we be doing tonight?" asked Sirius quietly, so no one could hear him.

"Let's ditch ol' Wormtail and try to get to the entrance without pressing the knot," responded James jokingly after a pause.

Peter Pettigrew was next to Sirius and overheard the conversation. "Hey!" he squeaked. 

"No," Remus answered serenely. "Davys Gudgeon is still down with Pomfrey. Dumbledore forbid anyone to go near the Whomping Willow, remember?" He lowered his voice to a low whisper. "You three have to transfigure closer to the tree this time."

"Why?" asked Peter worriedly.

James frowned. "Snape nearly saw us."

The four quieted down nervously. Peter kept averting his eyes to the Slytherin table, where Severus Snape held his usual sneer. Fortunately, he had stopped his latest way of reacting to James and his friends: staring and narrowing his eyes suspiciously. Last full moon, he had a glimpse of Peter just before his transfiguration into a rat, and had been quite annoying to Remus, James, Sirius, and Peter. Of course, Snape was always annoying.

Sirius finished the last of his oatmeal and put down his spoon with a clang. Peter followed suit. Both James and Remus picked around at the oatmeal, feeling clammy in the stomach. James was getting ready for the Quidditch match tomorrow, Gryffindor vs.Hufflepuff. He knew they were pushovers, especially on his Silver Arrow, but the thought of Snape telling somebody what he had seen always worried him. 

Remus, on the other hand, was dreading the night. His last transfigurations weren't terribly horrible. The winter season often brought clouds, but now spring was advancing and the sky was clear. The full moon would rise and he would . . . he shuddered and shook his head at the thought. If only he hadn't received the bite . . . 

The last bits of food melted from the plates and disappeared. The Gryffindor table stood up from their chairs and proceeded to the common room. James and Sirius went up in front of Remus, whose feet shuffled on the ground, and Peter, who sort of did a push and pull on him so he wouldn't fall behind. Sirius sunk into a deep chair as soon as they entered the common room through the portrait hole (the password: "Tiddly Wink") while James ran to his trunk to get his Silver Arrow. He didn't trust leaving it in the broom shed anymore, at least with Snape on his case.


	3. Quidditch

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TWO : QUIDDITCH

Soon, the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, Chris Cornwallis, stuck his head into the portrait hole.

"Team! To the field!" he shouted. James jumped up and followed the Keeper, Karen Jansby, to the changing room. As he pulled on his scarlet Quidditch robes, there was a knock on the door. Chris looked through the peephole and opened the door a crack. "James!" he called. "Peter Pettigrew here! He wants to talk to you!"

James groaned. "Not _now_," he responded. "Tell him to tell me after the game!" 

Chris delivered the message through the door and shut it. Peter knocked furiously again but the whole team ignored him. Finally, it was time to head out to the Quidditch field.

Holding his silver Arrow in his hand, James was glad to see Peter again in his seat in the stands, in between Remus and Sirius. The Hufflepuff team, decked in bright yellow robes, stood waiting on the hard, thawed ground.

Chris gathered his Gryffindor team around him in a huddle. "All right, everyone," he announced.

"We know Hufflepuff's quite easy to beat." He looked around, and several people nodded. "But don't let that get to us," he continued. "James, catch the Snitch as soon as possible. Not that I wouldn't tell you otherwise," he quickly added. "Karen, do anything to keep the Quaffle away from that Henry Moxington, I hear he's better than we thought. Joe, Terry," he looked toward the Beaters, "Just slam those Bludgers into their heads. Those brooms are outstripped by garden slugs. And finally, Warren, Nigel, well..." He looked out at the Hufflepuffs, who were also huddled in a pep talk. "Play as well as me," Chris beamed. 

"Aye-aye, sir," saluted Warren mockingly.

James and the rest of the team mounted their brooms. Professor Janilla, the referee for this match, blew his whistle and kicked off. Fifteen brooms rose into the air. James decided to ride a little higher than the game so he'd be out of the general ruckus. The Hufflepuff Seeker, Sarah Johnson, followed him. Fortunately, she didn't seem to be looking very hard for the Snitch. "Wahoo! Thirty-ten!" she screamed with one hand raised. "Awww, thirty-twenty. Ha ha ha, go Teena, she hit that Bludger right at Chris! COME ON, HENRY! KICK HER! KAREN ISN'T MADE OF GLASS, YOU KNOW!"

James circled the game nervously as Sarah bellowed the score louder than the commentator. It had been nearly fifteen minutes and there was still no sign of the Snitch. A Bludger or two passed by, but James flew faster than them easily. Suddenly, to his fear, Sarah did a tremendous dive, hand outstretched. Did she see it? Her path seemed only on the way to Terry Russell, his bat raised menacingly towards a Bludger that was approaching Warren Tent. James leaned down closer with his broom, narrowly missing the other Bludger that swung by him.

At the rate she was going, Sarah would collide with Terry in about two seconds...suddenly she swerved, and did something entirely unexpected. She slapped Terry right across his face.

"Penalty shot to Gryffindor! What in the world was that for –" bellowed Professor Janilla.

"HE SHOT THAT BLUDGER DIRECTLY AT ME!!" cried Sarah. "HE DID! HE TRIED TO HURT ME!!"

As the disgruntled Hufflepuff Seeker continued to holler and have a tantrum, Nigel Ambrose lined up to take the penalty shot. It was guarded by the large Hufflepuff Keeper who spread himself out and tried to block any chance Nigel had. However, he gave a fake to the right with the Quaffle and made the Keeper swerve to the right goalpost. Nigel quickly threw it into the left goalpost. The score was now fifty-fifty, and the team congratulated their scoring Chaser with hearty claps on the back. James, however, now ignoring all of Sarah's shouts, had seen the Snitch. 

He dived quickly towards the bottom of the Gryffindor goalpost, hand outstretched in a grasp for the fluttering golden ball. Looking around to see if any Hufflepuffs or Bludgers were near, he snatched the Snitch in a firm grip. James put his hand up and yelled in glory. But no one was watching him.


	4. Fight in the Stands

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THREE: FIGHT IN THE STANDS

Professor Janilla landed on the ground with a soft bump, dropped his broomstick on the grass, and ran towards the stands. James looked up in bewilderment at a large riot erupting in the benches. Eventually, the rest of the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff team brought their brooms to the ground and stood there, confused. Chris, Terry, Warren, and Karen ran over to James, who presented the Snitch to the captain.

"What happened?" asked Warren slowly. 

Karen shrugged, and reported what she saw in a rush. "I saw a Gryffindor sixth year look up at the sky, and just sort of started crying or yelling, or both, or something, and then a Slytherin, I think sixth year, ran over to him and a couple other Gryffindors, and then the Slytherin started hitting the shorter Gryffindor, then there were some more Slytherins, and then there was just a big fight all of a sudden."

James's stomach reeled. "Do you remember who did what? Exactly?"

Terry stepped foward. "I recognize them...That Slytherin was Severus Snape. And the kid who got punched, that was Pettigrew–"

"Peter Pettigrew?" cried James.

"How many Pettigrews do you think we have at Hogwarts, James?" responded Terry, annoyed.

"And the person right next to the screaming guy, what's his name, that was Sirius, Sirius Black, I believe," continued Karen for him.

James stared up again at the fight in the stands, now being broke apart by a few of the braver Professors. His heart did a triple flip. If Peter and Sirius were defending someone from Snape, someone who started yelling in agony and despair at the sky...it had to be someone who totally changed when the sky was right...someone who knew what would happen, tonight....

"Moony," he whispered painfully. He watched, feeling helpless, the riot eventually break down with the help of Professor Janilla. He had a mean grip and pulled the worst fighters apart, and Professor Sinistra of Astronomy placed clever freezing charms on whole swarms of people and separated them. At last, James spied Remus being carried off to Madame Pomfrey on a stretcher, Peter limping behind with a hand over a bruised black eye, and Sirius with fists clenched and jaw jut out. James threw off his Quidditch robes, tossed them to Chris, and ran up to the line of injured students.


	5. Evil Plans

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FOUR : EVIL PLANS

Sirius nodded as soon as he saw his friend run up to him, face still twisted in anger. James, through all his years of friendship with Padfoot, had never seen him so mad. They walked up to the castle in silence, along with a dozen other severely hurt people. At the entrance, Professor Janilla separated Peter and Remus from Sirius and James. ."Madame Pomfrey doesn't need the whole school in her office, go to your common room please, your house heads will inform you of any information you need, go on," he ushered. James began up the common room obediently, but Sirius grabbed his shoulder and pushed him quickly into a deserted classroom.

"Listen, Prongs," he began angrily. "That Snape is a"("Padfoot!" cried James.) "that deserves punishment. I don't care if I get in trouble or anything, Prongs...we need to do something to him. He punched Wormtail in the eye for no reason at all! Then he started talking about how Moony and everything, and ..." Sirius then launched into a long speech about Snape. James saw his point quickly; Snape did get off many times when he should have been revenged. However, Sirius kept ranting on and on. "And he keeps insulting Wormtail in Potions and then he starts doing –"

"Padfoot!" interrupted James. "I get the idea! What do we do?"

"What Wormtail told you."

"He didn't tell me anything!"

"Yes, he did – he went down to the changing rooms and then – oh, yes, Chris told him to go away."

James felt a twinge of guilt. 

"Alright, then, what's the plan?"

Sirius grinned, and released his plan slowly. "We can tell him how to freeze the Whomping Willow...."

He looked at James expectantly.

"And?"

"And tell him to go down the hole...."

He nodded as if to say, 'Yes, what you're thinking....' James still didn't understand.

"And?"

"And..." He smiled wickedly. "Do you think he's ever met a werewolf?"

Suddenly the plan sunk into James. He laughed. "Perfect!" His face fell after a few seconds. "Do you think it's...wise?"

"No," shrugged Sirius. "But doesn't he deserve it?"

James slowly copied Sirius's evil smile. "Yes. Yes, he does. Let's do it--tonight."


	6. Preparation

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FIVE : PREPARATION

James ran down the corridor quietly, with Sirius behind him. They ran into the common room just minutes before McGonagall stepped inside. Falling into the squashy armchairs, Sirius and James hoped McGonagall didn't notice they were out of breath. "Students," she began, looking around the room slowly. "What happened today at the Quidditch field was not tolerable." The Gryffindors looked around at each other nervously. "As we don't know and really don't need to know who did what, no punishments will be handed out." The room gave a shaky sigh of relief. 

"However,"she continued, "we have leads, but we will not name them. Anyone of these suspected people, and you know who you are," her eyes flashed for a split second to Sirius and James, "will be under close watch and may face expulsion if any more trouble is directly traced to them. That is all." She slowly exited the room, leaving everyone with a feeling of wariness.

After about a minute of tight silence, the room suddenly erupted in nervous conversation. James and Sirius exchanged their chairs for a pair in a dark corner. "What'll we do now?" asked Sirius worriedly. "McGonagall knows we're at the root of this. Our record is tarnished."

James shrugged. "There's always the cloak, we can do some things with that," he prompted optimistically. But Padfoot was right, the rule breaking they did at the full moon in Animagi form had often ended in being a hair's width away from being caught. What happened with Snape was testimony. "Snape!" remembered James suddenly. "How are we going to convince him to go into the trunk of the Whomping Willow now?"

Sirius assumed his thinking stance. "Hmmm..." he thought aloud. "Maybe if we...no...that won't work...what if we?...no, he wouldn't fall for that...." He went along in this vein for about five minutes. "Aha! I've got it!" Sirius suddenly announced, a little louder than what was wise. "Do you think Wormtail's out of the ward yet?"

As if to answer his question, Peter suddenly appeared through the hole and tumbled in. He sunk into a chair by Sirius and James. "Hi guys!" he piped happily, the bruise on his face magically reduced. Then he spied their set faces, and his voice changed in pitch. "Can I do anything?" he asked in a low voice.

"Actually, yes," responded Sirius. He tented his hands. "It's a very risky business...." He looked around carefully and leaned in. His voice was barely audible. "Wormtail, transfigure at lunch. I don't know how you're going to pull this off...you'll think of something." Peter nodded, apprehensive. "Then," continued Sirius. "Bite Snape in the leg." He smiled a little as Peter looked, confused, at him. Even James wasn't sure of Sirius's plan. "He will go down to the nurse's ward...where Moony's stationed at the moment. Right?"

Peter nodded. "In a bed by the door."

"Excellent," responded Sirius. "Beforehand, we pay a visit to ol' Moony, and tell him to thrash about and whisper the secret knot in his 'sleep'. You know Snape, he gets into anything and everything. So he'll hear how to freeze the Willow, and go there, tonight. I'm sure Moony's going to be out tonight?"

Peter nodded again. "He should add that we'll be doing something secret in the Willow, just to make sure Snape will follow him. Oh, and James, can I borrow the cloak? I'll be the Invisible Rat." He chuckled at his lame joke. 

James shook his head and ignored the joke. "We should go to Pomfrey's now," he suggested. Sirius agreed, and the three of them stood up and left through the portrait hole.


	7. The Trap is Set

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SIX : THE TRAP IS SET

"Oh, hello, Sirius, Peter, James,"greeted Remus quietly. He was lying on a bed, face very pale for even him, with a half-eaten chocolate bar in his hand. James felt helpless as he watched his friend, very subdued and weak, struggle to speak. "I heard you won the match?"

James blinked. "Oh, yeah...the game sort of ended early but I caught the Snitch anyway. I don't know who won...." He made his voice as quiet as Remus's. "We need a favor of you."

Remus raised his eyebrows. "Me?"

"Oh, yes, we–" started Peter, but was quickly interrupted by Sirius. He explained the whole plan to the wide-eyed Remus. 

"Like James said...is it really wise?" he asked, voice a little stronger, after the plan was revealed. He took a bite of chocolate and pondered the idea. "I'm not sure if I could...hold myself–"

"Visitors!" Madame Pomfrey suddenly announced, from the other room. "Visitors, it is time for lunch! Go on!"

Peter jumped up, hand close to his robe and the loaned Invisibility Cloak underneath it. The excitement of what he was about to do next coursed through him and he almost bolted out of the room. Sirius started after him, afraid of what suspicions Peter might stir with him tearing down the hall. "Peter!" he shouted, in the bustle of the crowd outside. Students coursed around him, on the way to lunch, and completely blocked the view of what his friend was doing. He decided to just act casually and talk to Peter later at the table.

James, on the other hand, had seen nothing of this. Remus had begun to act really strangely, and was being carefully watched by the worried James beside him. "Don't go!" he suddenly shouted, strength returned. "Don't! I don't know what will happen! DON'T. GO." Remus started bellowing warnings, much to the surprise of James. Fortunately, Madame Pomfrey was off in another room and heard nothing of Remus's fits. James carefully backed up off the chair he was sitting in as Remus started to go hoarse. He grabbed James's shirt. "I won't do it," he warned. "I'm not going to tell Snape anything. Tell off Wormtail that I'm not going to do it!" Suddenly, he passed out James carefully backed out of the door, and began to run, shaking, to the Great Hall.

He heard footsteps and quiet curses in the hall before him. Ducking behind a corner, James saw Snape with his right hand wrapped around one of his left fingers. "Stupid rat. I think it was a rat,"he murmured.

"I ain't sayin nothin. I saw no rat," came another voice. James recognized it as a sixth year Slytherin named Gerry Kalzon. He lumbered along the passageway with his hand on Snape's shoulder. 

"I don't need your guidance, Gerry," remarked Snape flatly.

James listened as the arguing voices went down the corridor. He continued to the Great Hall, where there was a considerable murmur from the Slytherin table. As he sat down in his seat next to Sirius, he smiled at Peter. "Good job," he mouthed. He decided to not tell anyone about Remus's refusal. He really didn't want Snape learn how to freeze the Whomping Willow. Honestly, he didn't want to get in trouble for leading Snape into the mess at all. But most deeply inside, he really didn't want his friend Moony to face Snape after his frenzied warning.

He glumly ate his lunch as these thoughts ran through his head. What would happen tonight? Would Snape somehow discover how to enter the Whomping Willow anyway? Would Remus be locked in the nurse's ward? If Snape did get into the Whomping Willow, what would happen then? He sighed. 

"Hey, man," offered Sirius, who instantly read James's signs, "just forget about it. We aren't doing anything for a couple of hours." 

"All right," responded James quietly. "I hope this works."


	8. Revenge

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SEVEN : REVENGE

Peter, James, Remus, and Sirius walked quickly across the grounds, the night air reminding them that winter was not yet over. Remus was quite mad at the plan Sirius and Peter had cooked up, and they were anguished that he hadn't fulfilled his part of the deal. James was feeling very edgy, and considered himself in the middle of a battlefield. The Invisibility Cloak was hidden under his winter cloak, just in case a real squabble or something broke out. Clouds obscured the full moon, promising rain tomorrow and a safe journey with Remus, at least to the Whomping Willow.

"Shall we hurry?" asked Peter nervously. He glanced up at a break in the clouds that was slowly coming closer. Running towards the already flailing willow, he picked up a gnarled stick and jabbed it into the secret knot of the tree. It froze immediately. James was leading Remus in between the lower branches to the trunk's entrance when suddenly –

"The moon's out!" cried Sirius. He, Peter, and James ran from the tree as the moonlight hit the ground and fell on the already-changing Remus's face. As Peter and Sirius quickly assumed their Animagi forms, James tripped and the Invisibility Cloak flew. The tree began its mad swinging again, and Peter ran foward and threw his weight on the knot. Sirius nudged Remus down the hole of the Whomping Willow as James transfigured. Watching Peter scamper down behind the two, James scanned the area nervously for anyone who might have seen the transfiguration. The castle was dark, the grounds were empty, and he ran down the trunk's hole, satisfied.

The tunnel winded on for a long time, and James realized his friends were already up at the Shrieking Shack. He thought he heard footsteps in the dark behind him, but turned and saw nothing. Finally, the stairs before the Shrieking Shack appeared, and the tunnel lightened slightly. Quickly turning his head one last time, James could still see nobody. He had an odd feeling of being watched, and suddenly, his foot treaded on a cloak, pinning it to the ground. Snape suddenly appeared...from beneath the Invisibility Cloak.

"Snape!" cried James. "Snape's here! He must have heard our conversation in the ward!"

Remus poked his head around the doorway, bewildered. Snape opened his eyes in fear, and suddenly the realization of what he was seeing struck him. Remus growled a few times at the sight of a human, leapt out into the tunnel, and was blocked by James. Snape bounded up the tunnel faster than he had ever ran in his life. Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus looked at each other from the doorway.

"This will take some explaining," James said quietly, after a few minutes. He pulled the cloak over his head, transfigured, and ran up the tunnel, following Snape. 

****

The End


End file.
